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Last Of Five Girls Killed in Schoolhouse Massacre in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, Buried; Sudanese Government Threatens To Treat Proposed U.N. Peacekeeping Force As Hostile; Will Republicans Be Able To Put Mark Foley Scandal Behind Them Before Elections?; Former Congressional Page Speaks Out
Aired October 06, 2006 - 15:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.
Explosions, followed by fire, nasty smoke, unnerving knocks on the door in the middle of the night -- that was Apex, North Carolina, after fire broke out at a hazardous waste plant. Today, we know more about the accident and the dangers.
CNN's Amanda Rosseter is there live -- Amanda.
AMANDA ROSSETER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Don, we have just wrapped up a news conference from Apex Mayor Keith Weatherly.
The latest from that situation is that four small fires are still burning under that collapsed building. That's the E.Q. Industrial Services processing plant.
The massive fire and explosion happened overnight. And the initial concern was about the smoke and the fumes that were coming from that fire, not the fire specifically itself. And that is because that building housed pesticides, oxides, and chlorine, and there were huge plumes of materials, substances, that were coming from that building.
About 16,000 people were evacuated overnight. Hundreds are still in local shelters. Others have gone to friends and family in the Apex area and outside the Apex area. About half the town evacuated. Some residents have complained of nausea. And about 24 have gone to local hospitals.
The initial tests about air quality have shown that there is no immediate threat from the air. They're now checking the groundwater as well.
And this is what the mayor had to say a couple of minutes ago about evacuees.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KEITH WEATHERLY, MAYOR OF APEX, NORTH CAROLINA: But I don't want to give any false hopes, because there's, obviously, some unknowns in that, that, when they -- some of the fire is under the collapsed building, and they say that there are some uncertainties at how quickly they could extinguish the fire. And, then, based on EPA's findings, once they get in there, that there is no potential hazard for any future gases or fumes leaving the site, then, they will start assessing the folks who can go home.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROSSETER: So, Don, two issues remain here today.
The air quality has been initially tested by the EPA. They are on-site here. And they say there is nothing alarming that they found so far in the air. They are testing the runoff water, because, although the rain did help get rid of the fumes and the smoke this morning, they are concerned about contamination for the groundwater in Apex area and in the surrounding North Carolina area as well. So, they will be testing all of that.
Live in Apex, I'm Amanda Rosseter -- back to you.
LEMON: Amanda, thank you so much for your report.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: First United Methodist in Memphis, a downtown landmark since 1893, today a victim of flames that toppled its steeple and set the roof caving in.
The cause of the fire has not been determined. But no one hurt. Sparks from the fires ignited two buildings nearby, including the 22- story Lincoln American Tower, once the tallest building in Memphis.
A developer who was converting the tower into condos is hoping it can be salvaged.
Our I-reporters have been busy working the fire in Memphis.
First, a look what I-reporter Charles Downs sent us from Scottsdale, Arizona. This is a before picture of the First United Methodist Church. Downs told CNN that he took this photo while on a recent business trip to Memphis.
And then I-reporter Ian Jones looked -- or Ian Jones, rather -- looked out his condo window around 4:30 this morning. He saw smoke and flames across the park, just hundreds of feet away, and captured this image.
Now, you don't see the burning church, but you can see a couple of buildings that caught fire right next to it. Jones says that the burning building was being renovated for condos, and the building on the left is the Lincoln American Tower.
Now, you can see more video and photos like these on our Web site. Or send in your own I-Report and join us here at CNN. Just log on to CNN.com to find out how.
LEMON: What a week. This time seven days ago, did you know the name Mark Foley? Not likely, if you're outside the state of Florida or the U.S. Congress, but we certainly know him today.
Well, his story doomed at least one career, his own, and scandalized the House Republican leadership.
CNN congressional correspondent Andrea Koppel is live at the Capitol with the very latest on this -- Andrea.
ANDREA KOPPEL, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good afternoon, Don.
Well, in the last day or so, Republicans, certainly around Speaker Hastert, are breathing a bit of sigh of relief. They feel they bought themselves a little time, and that intense pressure that had been on Speaker Hastert over the last week has diminished, at least a bit, and that is ever since that press conference that he had yesterday, in which he not only accepted full responsibility, saying that the buck stopped with him, and -- and apologized for the incident.
He also got a call, a very important call, from President Bush, the first time since the incident broke last week and the scandal enveloped ever since, expressing his support for Dennis Hastert. The Republican leadership in both the House and the Senate also feeling that perhaps the immediate crisis had passed, again, just for the time being, sent a letter to Hastert expressing their support, that from Bill Frist, and, then, the two leading Republicans, after Speaker Hastert, in the House.
Speaker Hastert, himself, made clear during yesterday's press conference that he has no intention of resigning any time soon.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. DENNIS HASTERT (R-IL), SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE: Ultimately, any time that a person has to, as a leader, be on the hot seat and he is a detriment to the party, you know, there ought to be a change. I became speaker in a situation like that. I don't think that's the case. I said I haven't done anything wrong, obviously.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KOPPEL: Now, Speaker Hastert's press conference is only one of a couple reasons that Republican leaders are feeling slightly better today.
And the other reason is that they felt that that press conference that the House Ethics Committee had yesterday went well. They felt that they were able to present a bipartisan, united front, telling the American people clearly how they were going to get to the bottom of who knew what, when.
We know that they have sent out about 40 subpoenas that they have approved that will go out. We don't know to whom, Don, but that they are going to be sent around.
And there is also the expectation that this will be resolved, or at least the investigation will be resolved on the House side, sooner, rather than later -- the top Democrats saying that it would be a matter of weeks, not months, before they got to it. Of course, we don't know whether the weeks will be before November 7. But the expectation is, it will happen sooner, rather than later -- Don.
LEMON: No doubt, the House, especially Republicans, want to get this behind them. How are they going to get this scandal behind them? Any strategy on that?
KOPPEL: Absolutely.
Well, certainly, we have been seeing pieces of it develop all week long, culminating in the press conference that Speaker Hastert had yesterday, and the House Ethics Committee launching its full-time, full-scale investigation.
But the other part is to pivot away from being on the defense, to putting -- at least attempting to try to put Democrats on the defense. And one of the ways that they have done that is to basically circumstance this letter. This is coming from a number of the members of the House Republican Caucus. And they have addressed it to, among others, the Democratic leader in the House, Nancy Pelosi.
What they are saying in the letter is: Ms. Pelosi, you're casting aspersions. Why don't you come forward and go under oath and tell us what you knew and when you knew it.
Now, the catch is, or the hitch is that I have spoken with Congresswoman Pelosi's office, and they say they haven't received it. They say this is kind of standard practice. Both parties do that to the other. They send letters around, and never actually send it to the parties. They send it to representatives of the media.
A Nancy Pelosi spokeswoman said, rather than, you know, you should ask how the story came about, Republicans still don't get it. Every mother is asking how Republicans could choose Republican politics -- or partisan politics, rather -- over protecting kids -- Don.
LEMON: All right, Andrea Koppel, part of the best political team on television, thank you.
PHILLIPS: There are two sides to every story, or, in the Foley story, three: the former congressmen, leaders in Congress who may or may not have known about him, and the teenage pages.
CNN's Sean Callebs is in Monroe, Louisiana, where one young man's family wants the world just to look elsewhere.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SEAN CALLEBS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We have known for some time that the young man at the center of this controversy was a 16-year-old page from Monroe, Louisiana, sponsored by Congressman Alexander. The family has been quiet throughout the week, but now is breaking their silence, issuing a prepared statement. I want to get right to that.
The family says: "As a young man with integrity who had the courage to question the intention of the e-mails, we respect and honor our son as a hero. Despise his courageous actions, he is becoming a victim due to the harassment by some of the media. Please honor our request that we be left alone. There is nothing more that we can contribute to this ongoing matter.
"He is not" -- and not is bold -- "the story. And we feel this intense media scrutiny could endanger our son and our family. We have no intention of discussing this any further."
I want to be very clear about this. The young man we're talking about received e-mails from Foley, things like: What do you want for your birthday? When is your birthday? And would you send picture of -- would you send me a picture of yourself?
He did not receive the more lurid instant messages that Foley apparently sent from an AOL account. The family said, had they known about those I.M.s, which happened a year earlier, the family said they may have handled this differently. But what they asked of Congressman Alexander was to keep the name private, to not turn this it into a media frenzy.
The family hopes that this ends the focus on their son, but, clearly, the focus on this story continues.
Sean Callebs, CNN, in Monroe, Louisiana.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LEMON: A glimmer of hope, amid the grief in Pennsylvania's Amish country.
The last of five girls killed in Monday's schoolhouse massacre was buried today. Mourners of 12-year-old Anna Mae Stoltzfus were met with a steady rain and a bit of encouraging news. One girl who survived the shooting, but was not expected to live, is showing what are called signs of hope.
Her family, who had taken her home to die, have taken her back to the hospital. Four other girls are also hospitalized. Ten students, in all, were shot by the 32-year-old gunman, who killed himself as police moved in. There is talk the one-room schoolhouse may be knocked down.
PHILLIPS: The faith of the innocent -- the Amish community is still reeling from Monday's tragedy, but grieving families may take solace in the strength of their children's compassion and conviction in their final moments.
Just listen to midwife Rita Rhoads, who helped deliver one of the 10 girls shot by Charles Carl Roberts.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RITA RHOADS, MIDWIFE: When it became obvious that he was going to kill them, Marion said, "Shoot me first."
The gunman did ask for the girls to pray for him before he killed them. I mean, that's -- I mean, to me, that was just real significant, I mean, with his twisted mind and the evil things he had planned, he still recognized the need for prayer and recognized that these girls had a line to God.
Those parents can just be really, really satisfied with the way they raised their children. Christ shines through.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: The funeral processions actually passed the home of the gunman's family. His wife was invited to one of yesterday's funeral. We don't know whether she accepted or not.
A relief fund has been set up to help the victims' families. If you would like to make a donation, take down the address or toll-free phone number you see right there on your screen. The fund-raiser is a joint effort of the Mennonite Disaster Service and the Anabaptist Foundation; $500,000 has already been pledged by one corporate donor.
LEMON: Iraqi oil, yet another sticking point in a drive to build a unified democratic nation.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice traveled north today to ask Iraq's Kurdish leaders to share their region's oil wealth with the rest of the country. Kurdish leader Massoud Barzani didn't make any pledges to Rice, at least not in public. His regional government has threatened to split from the rest of Iraq over oil.
Iraq is lacking. Much of the country is short on basic services, security, medical care, and trustworthy sources of information. People in Baghdad talk a lot. It's a new freedom. And, with facts in short supply, it's two-edged sword.
CNN's Cal Perry is listening.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CAL PERRY, CNN PRODUCER (voice-over): Baghdad is a city where rumor and fact often blend together, where perception and reality collide in animated discussions on the street, all the more so as the city and the country lurch from one crisis to another.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): There's no smoke without fire. Iraqis are starting to believe these things, the talk of a military coup, major politicians and parliamentarians supporting terrorists and attacks against the suffering people.
PERRY: When Saddam Hussein ruled Iraq, there was no such talk. Discussions of politics and government could be fatal. At most, friends would exchange whispers. Now street talk is as unpredictable as the political situation, often fueled by the wild reporting of Baghdad's fledgling newspapers.
Rumors that are printed have a habit of becoming news. For example, the U.S. military would be surprised to hear:
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): They said the Green Zone fell, and the government is going down.
PERRY: Maybe the prime minister is living on borrowed time.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): We heard that President, in his latest call to Prime Minister Maliki, gave him two weeks to disband the militias and solve the problem of violence, or he will have to be replaced.
PERRY: And Saddam?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): Many rumors. For example, with the second Saddam trial, a rumor came out that the Americans want him back in power.
PERRY: So influential is the rumor machine that people change their movements or stock up on supplies. It can even lead to a curfew being imposed.
(on camera): The truth is, on Baghdad's streets, the strength and speed of these rumors are a good barometer of the political situation. Whether about Saddam or the current government, these rumors are swirling fast.
Cal Perry, CNN, Baghdad.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PHILLIPS: Well, Marines charged with murder -- a Navy medic helps make the case.
Petty Officer 3rd Class Melson Bacos was himself charged with murder, larceny and kidnapping in Iraq. At his court-martial -- court-martial today in San Diego, he pleaded guilty to kidnapping and conspiracy, and agreed to testify against his former comrades.
Bacos and seven Marines are accused of killing an Iraqi man in April, an unarmed 52-year-old civilian, and then trying to cover it up. Bacos testified he watched as Marines shot the man, after dragging him from his home. He said it made him sick to his stomach.
So, what's it like to be a page and interact with members of Congress?
LEMON: Well, we will ask someone who knows, a former page who did interact with Mark Foley. He has strong opinions, both about the page program and Congress -- his story ahead in the CNN NEWSROOM.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: Doing a Google for YouTube might soon lead you right back to Google.
(LAUGHTER)
PHILLIPS: Cheryl Casone live at the New York Stock Exchange to explain. And I will you what. YouTube, that is really -- I think, during the Lebanon war, we really got to see a lot of stuff on that Web site. Now it's moving into Iraq and a number of other things. Everyone is logging on to that.
CHERYL CASONE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I saw that, too, as well, the stuff on Iraq. It really is amazing.
That company started in February of 2005. I mean, these kids worked for PayPal, of all places, and started up this Internet search site. The rumor going around today that is kind of picking up steam now is that Google may buy YouTube.
"The Wall Street Journal" actually is reporting that Google is in talks to buy the video-sharing site for roughly $1.6 billion. Now, "The Journal" is quoting a source saying the talks are still in sensitive stages, and they could break off.
Neither Google, nor YouTube would comment on this report, Kyra. But, certainly, the 25 people that work at YouTube could benefit from $1.6 billion, I would think.
PHILLIPS: This is a pretty big deal for Google.
CASONE: Absolutely.
You know, it could really turn things around for a lot of things in the Internet search world. YouTube users watch more than 100 million videos every day, if you can believe it. And "The Journal" says that they command nearly half of the online video search market.
That compares to Google Video's 10 percent share. So, YouTube could carry some baggage, though. Let's keep that in mind here. The site has been under fire by many big media companies for carrying pirated versions of copyrighted shows. And, by the way, YouTube's chief, he has said publicly the company is not for sale, Kyra. So, it's a story to follow, for sure.
PHILLIPS: All right. You know we will follow it, too.
All right. How are the markets doing? Are we going to have a fourth Dow record today, you think?
CASONE: Someone told me my luck is running out...
(LAUGHTER)
CASONE: ... which I somewhat resented, actually, a little while ago.
But we're going to need a big rally, at this point, in the final half-hour to get there right now. Stocks are still in the red today -- Investors disappointed over a weak September jobs report. Plus, we have got some good old-fashioned profit-taking going on this Friday. The Dow industrials are trading down 32 points -- a 6 percent drop in GM shares weighing on the blue chips. The NASDAQ composite right now is losing almost a quarter-percent.
Well, that is latest from Wall Street. I will be back in about a half-an-hour with a wrap of the trading day.
More NEWSROOM just ahead, but, first, our weekly series, "Life After Work."
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CLARENCE WILDES, MOTORCYCLE INSTRUCTOR: The thing we want to work on is using your brakes to slow before entering the turn.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Before the turn? OK.
VALERIE MORRIS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Slowing down is the last thing on the mind of 57-year-old Clarence Wildes. He's finally living his dream, sharing his passion for motorcycles.
WILDES: I got interested in riding motorcycles when I was 18. My cousin had one. I wasn't allowed to have one, but I was allowed to ride his.
MORRIS: Clarence had an early retirement package, when his job as an engineering manager was eliminated. He then took a substantial risk to finance a new business.
WILDES: I used some of what was left of my 401(k), which by then was a 101(k). A lot of it was on a wing and a prayer.
MORRIS: He and his wife, Pat, opened Rolling Wheels Training Center in Kansas City, Missouri, with just one student. After that, all the classes reached capacity. There are plans to open a second school in Florida, but Wildes insists it's not about the money.
WILDES: Well, if I wasn't retired, we wouldn't be able to live off what we're making here. The passion drives us more than anything else. It keeps me wanting to come back. When you're working in your passion, that's really what it's all about.
Valerie Morris, CNN.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: Well, in politics, as in life, timing is everything. And, if your political party has to be burdened with a sex scandal, especially a sex scandal involving middle-aged men and teenagers, well, you don't want it to happen the month before the elections. But, for the GOP, it has.
And CNN senior political analyst Bill Schneider tries to gauge, or possibly predict, the damage.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) WILLIAM SCHNEIDER, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST (voice-over): Republicans are afraid their base could abandon them, just as it did in the Watergate midterm of 1974.
PAUL WEYRICH, CHAIRMAN AND CEO, FREE CONGRESS RESEARCH AND EDUCATION FOUNDATION: Reagan's pollster, Dick Wirthlin, coined the term the embarrassed Republican vote. And he mentioned that because the Democrats won this huge landslide in 1974. Only, the vote for them was the same as it was four years earlier, in 1970 -- the difference being the extraordinary drop-off of Republicans.
SCHNEIDER: This year, conservatives are not just embarrassed. Many of them are angry over government spending, and a big new prescription drug program, and the failure to win a decisive victory in Iraq.
RICHARD VIGUERIE, CHAIRMAN, AMERICAN TARGET ADVERTISING: It certainly appears to be like the final nail in the coffin. For six years, the conservatives have gotten basically lip service from this administration. They've been used and abused.
SCHNEIDER: Republicans are totally dependent on the conservative vote. Here is why.
CNN's polls show liberals voting solidly Democratic. Republicans have lost the middle. Moderates favor Democrats by nearly 2-1. More than 60 percent of conservatives still plan to vote Republican, but nearly a third of them say they will support the Democrat.
And, if conservatives are embarrassed by the congressional scandals, a lot of them could stay home, just as they did after Watergate.
The White House hopes they will put the scandal aside.
TONY SNOW, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: Come Election Day, the question is whether people are going to be voting on the basis of disgusting I.M.s between a grown man and a young man, or something that's probably more important to everybody, which is safety, security and prosperity.
SCHNEIDER: Don't know yet, but experts say a lot of new races could be in play that were not in play a week ago.
STUART ROTHENBERG, "THE ROTHENBERG POLITICAL REPORT": And I think the biggest question is, could there be a whole set of seats that we haven't been looking at that, because the focus is on Republicans and missteps and misdeeds, suddenly come into play in the next few weeks? And I think -- I think it's likely that there are races that, right now, we can't even identify.
SCHNEIDER (on camera): That rumbling noise you hear may be the political landscape shifting. And those people running for cover, they are Republicans.
Bill Schneider, CNN, Washington. (END VIDEOTAPE)
LEMON: And, of course, Bill Schneider is part of the best political team on television. See more of his reports in "THE SITUATION ROOM" at 4:00 Eastern, and again, in prime time, at 7:00 Eastern.
And for the latest on this story, check out CNN's new political ticker. Just go to CNN.com/ticker.
PHILLIPS: So, what's it like to be a page and interact with members of Congress? We're going to ask someone who knows, a former page who did interact with Mark Foley. He has strong opinions, both about the page program and Congress -- his story straight ahead from the NEWSROOM.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: More from Africa now, Sudan -- the United States is calling for an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council on the crisis in Darfur, part of western Sudan, the U.S. demand prompted by a threat from the Sudanese government to treat a proposed U.N. peacekeeping force as hostile. Those peacekeepers are needed to stop an apparent genocide.
Dr. Sanjay Gupta reports from a refugee camp in neighboring Chad.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN SR. MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Everyone here has a story.
"Like knight riders, they came after midnight," this man tells me. He's talking about Janjaweed, a pro-government militia accused of atrocities across Darfur.
Armed gunmen on horseback. A single bullet, they crippled these twin girls. Scrambling for their lives, they ran on shattered legs, desperate to escape Darfur. Though the wounds are healing, they may never recover from the terror.
(on camera): How many of you feel safe here? Nobody.
How many of you lost somebody during this conflict? Almost everybody.
(voice-over): This woman lost a daughter. Her story is so painful, her mother must speak for her.
As she was fleeing, she put her 2-year-old little baby girl on her back. Two years later, she still can't talk about it, but her mother witnessed it all. Gun fire rang out, and suddenly her daughter went quiet and limp, shot dead with a bullet meant for her. Now, they are bonded by that terrible moment and by their new lives as refugees.
(on camera): How is your life here in this camp? UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): We live in the situation that you see right now. We don't have many things.
GUPTA (on camera): A lot of people ask what does a refugee camp look like? Well, you're looking at one of the biggest ones where so many of the 200,000 displaced people from Darfur are living.
These little huts is where people actually live. These trees are actually bound together. They use this to actually pound food into a paste that they can cook. And over here is where they keep some of their water.
It's not enough. Everyone tells us that all the time. They don't have enough food or water. This is where they're living on. This is how they're living.
(voice-over): Few of them know how they're going to get through next week, much less if or when they'll ever return home. Even so, they're trying to create new lives.
(on camera): Look at all the brightly colored clothing around here. These are all refugees that actually come to this market to exchange goods. They don't have any money. They actually barter one service for another so they can take some of these goods back to their homes.
(voice-over): Or what they now call homes. Huts, really. Made of sticks. Women preparing what little food they have.
(on camera): Besides food and clothing, what do you want for your grandchildren?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): Food and education.
GUPTA (voice-over): The children also have stories. So many of them are losing their parents.
LAURA PEREZ, UNICEF OFFICER: We've heard just really terrible heartbreaking stories. I heard a story of a young girl who's 14 who was gang raped by 15 men, 15 Janjaweed.
Children who witnessed the murder of their parents. We've heard stories of mothers and girls being taken from their villages by Janjaweed. We don't know where they're taken to. Just atrocities and horrible, horrible stories that are traumatic. These children are traumatized and adults are traumatized, as well.
GUPTA (on camera): The stories are horrifying and so many start just beyond those hills where the Sudan-Chad border is. So many people came by foot, walked all the way to these refugee camps.
What we find, though, is they have so much in common with people in other parts of the world. Yes, they want food and water, but they also want their own land. And most importantly, they want education for their children. (voice-over): When their sleep is not broken by nightmares, they dream the dreams we all dream. It's so basic. They want a better future for their children. They want their kids to be safe.
Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN, Goz Beida, Chad.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LEMON: Helpless, homeless, but not entirely hopeless. For hundreds of thousands of African refugees, aid workers are a lifeline. But aid workers face their own set of challenges. Here's CNN's Jeff Koinange from Sudan.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JEFF KOINANGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): They have come from comfortable surroundings far away at enormous risk to themselves. Anne Cecille Mellet and Balginder Heer are part of a fast-disappearing breed in this region -- foreign aid workers.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We have to continue the treatment.
KOINANGE: Six months ago, Malay was a pediatric nurse, making the rounds in one of Paris's leading hospitals, when she was offered an overseas assignment. She said yes, even before she learned her destination would be Darfur.
ANNE CECILLE MELLET, ACTION AGAINST HUNGER: From my side it was a beginning, to all my life change completely.
KOINANGE: In her native French, she comforts a young malnourished girl named Yasmina (ph). Don't worry, she tells Yasmina and her mother, it won't hurt. Yasmina is 13 months old, and weighs just 15 pounds. That's what six-month-old babies should weigh. What Yasmina really needs is an intravenous drip to build her up. The best they've got here is some high protein milk and an old plastic cup.
And then there's the constant danger lurking both within and outside the refugee camps.
(on camera): Here's an interesting statistic for you. Ever since a peace deal was signed five months ago, 12 aid workers have been killed, all of them Sudanese nationals. That's more aid workers than in the entire history of this conflict. The foreigners, too, are feeling vulnerable, that they could very well be next.
(voice-over): Thirty-one-year-old Balginder Heer was a researcher into tropical children's diseases for nearly a decade in London. She wanted to put her research into practice, and she chose to do it here. Her parents tried to talk her out of it.
BALGINDER HEER, ACTION AGAINST HUNGER: This is a conflict zone. It is dangerous. It's not as bad as people may imagine. It can be just as dangerous, if not worse, in some of the major capitals around the world, like New York or London. KOINANGE: She's also constantly aware that women here face an unusually great risk of being raped. She spends her nights in a protected compound, a 20-minute drive away.
There are more than 14,000 aid workers in Darfur alone, and only 1,000 of them are foreigners. The risks are huge. So are the rewards.
Jeff Koinange, CNN, Abushock (ph) Refugee Camp in north Darfur.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LEMON: And tomorrow, more stories like these. Anderson Cooper hosts a CNN special report from Africa, "The Killing Fields: Africa's Misery, the World's Shame." See it at 11:00 Eastern, 8:00 Pacific. More from the CNN NEWSROOM, straight ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: He was a man of the times -- his times, our times, the "New York Times." For decades, the words of R.W. Apple left off the page as Apple hopscotched the world in search of a great story and a good meal. Make that a good story and a great meal. Apple died this week at 71, and we miss him already.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
R.W. APPLE, "NEW YORK TIMES": I began reading the newspaper at a very early age, the "New York Times," I mean.
PHILLIPS (voice-over): The byline said R.W. Apple, Jr., but his friends and fans called him Johnny. That nickname, of course, was drawn from Johnny Appleseed, and among his fellow journalists, Johnny Apple was every bit as much of a legend.
The obituary in his home newspaper, the "New York Times," compared him to Dickens, Churchill, and Falstaff. He joined the "New York Times" in 1963. He had 73 front page bylines during that first year, and that was only the beginning.
Johnny Apple was equally at home in the battlefields of Vietnam, on the floor at a political convention, or interviewing a circus performer. Critics sometimes suggested he was a little too full of himself. Apple always said he just had a shout-filled career, including this memorable exchange with a colleague at the time.
APPLE: I've changed that second paragraph around a little bit. And I said, oh, have you? What does it say now? And he told me. And I said, and does it say by Seymour Topping? And he said no. And I said, well, get your sorry ass up to the composing room and take my name off it!
PHILLIPS: Apple's reporting stands the test of time. During his tour in Vietnam, Apple interviewed Lieutenant Commander John McCain, three months before McCain was taken prisoner by the north Vietnamese. Today, Senator John McCain calls Apple one of the dearest friends he ever had.
Reporting on Richard Nixon's resignation from the presidency in 1974, Apple called Nixon's story of election, Watergate, and humiliation, "a tragedy in three acts." Apple was one of the first political reporters to recognize the importance of the Iowa caucuses and one of the first to realize that an obscure governor named Jimmy Carter really had a shot at winning the presidency.
APPLE: I don't think we determine how it comes out, but I think there's no doubt that we have a considerable effect when we say this person is a serious candidate with a chance at the nomination, this person may be a serious candidate. This person isn't a serious candidate.
PHILLIPS: Apple's interests included food and travel, and his writing about those subjects was just as vivid. "Vidalias are to run- of-the-mill onions," he wrote, "as foie gras is to chopped liver."
APPLE: The best stuff you ever write comes out of someplace you don't understand. The really vivid image or phrase just kind of flows as if somebody is moving your hand and you don't understand.
PHILLIPS: And get this -- even as he was dying, he worked out all the details for the music and the menu for his memorial service.
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PHILLIPS: Well, Johnny Apple died Wednesday after a long battle with cancer. His final piece is a rhapsody on his 10 favorite restaurants around the world. You can read it on the "New York Times" Web site.
LEMON: He will be missed.
She started a trend and now she is gone. Actress Tamara Dobson has tied died. Many will remember her from her groundbreaking role in the 1970s movie "Cleopatra Jones." She was queen of the so-called blaxploitation films of the 1970s.
Dobson opened doors to strong leading roles for other black actresses like Pam Greer. "Cleopatra Jones" even helped inspires the "Austin Powers" character Foxy Cleopatra, played by Beyonce Knowles. Dobson died Tuesday in New York City of complications from pneumonia and multiple sclerosis. She was 59 years old.
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PHILLIPS: They used to be basically invisible, just a part of the infrastructure on Capitol Hill. This week though, congressional pages are front and center in a media glare reserved normally for their bosses.
LEMON: And Zack Hall joins us now. He is a college student in Austin, Texas, and he spent the summer of 2004 as a page in the House of Representatives. Zack Hall, first of all, welcome, and did you have any interaction with Representative Foley? And, if so, what was that interaction?
ZACK HALL, UNIV. OF TEXAS STUDENT: Yes, it was no different than any other interaction that any other college student or page, for that matter, would have had, just on the floor of the Congress and the House of Representatives.
He came up to me, introduced himself to a group of us, asked us where we wanted to go to college and nothing unusual about the interaction that we had with him. He was known on Capitol Hill as a nice guy to the pages and we didn't think anything of him.
PHILLIPS: Now, Zack, you had other friends that were pages as well that did receive some contact with him, some e-mails. Can you tell us about that and if they are turning them into investigators?
HALL: Yes. A friend of mine called me when the news broke and said, Zack, I received some e-mails and a handwritten note from Congressman Foley. Immediately, I told him to contact the authorities.
And the problem there was we didn't know who to contact. We kept being told there's going to be a page hotline established for former and current pages to call, and it wasn't established, to my knowledge, until yesterday. That page hotline should have been established 10, 15 years ago when the first scandals were taking place.
That needed to be done to protect us and I feel like our safety was put in jeopardy, I feel like my friend's safety was put in jeopardy. We were in Congress with a child predator and there's a problem there.
LEMON: So, again, the first time you found out about the e-mails or IMs from your friends, was that recently?
HALL: Yes, last Friday. He contacted me and said, Zack, I trust you, what do I do? And I told him, I said, you need to talk to your parents, you need to find out if the FBI is looking into it and since then, he has taken the precautions and done what's necessary.
But about his messages that he received, none of them were explicit. They were what you would consider overly friendly. They asked -- Congressman Foley asked for a picture and he provided a Christmas card picture of his family.
And what's -- the problem here is that we were pages in the summer of 2004. Congressman Foley was told by the House leadership not to send message to congressional pages in 2003. And I think that if it would have been investigated at that time by the leadership in the House of Representatives, they could have easily discovered that in 2004, pages were getting messages from Congressman Foley and it put our safety in jeopardy.
PHILLIPS: Zach, do you think there's a sort of a good ol' boy network there on the Hill that it's easy to keep secrets and that a lot of these leaders sort of protect themselves? HALL: You know, I hope that's not what happened in this case. I hope that the safety of the pages would have been put first. I hope that the safety of 16-year-old kids that go to Capitol Hill to learn about their country, you know -- it instilled a sense of civic duty in me that I have to this day. And, you know, I hope that that doesn't exist.
And, you know, unfortunately, the investigations will tell us if it does, but when the news reports continue to come out telling us that people told leadership that Congressman Foley was sending explicit messages to 16-year-olds asking them for all kinds of things, there's a problem there. It should have been ...
LEMON: Zach, let me ask you this. Were you ever warned at all about Congressman Foley?
HALL: No, I wasn't. And I don't know anyone that was warned about any Congressman or Congresswoman, for that matter. And that is why this is surprising to me. It's very surprising. It's shocking, and I think that one thing I want to say is that it's important that the page program not get -- they don't abolish it. It's important.
PHILLIPS: You started a group called Save the Congressional Page Program, right? Why are you doing that, and why is this group so important?
HALL: I feel like it's important that people know that the pages, the kids that go to D.C. are good kids. We're there to learn about our country and to serve it. And we shouldn't be getting rid of kids that want to go to Washington to serve their country. We should be getting rid of pedophiles in Congress. That's what we should be getting rid of.
And, you know, I think it would be a cop-out for them to get rid of the page program. They need to get reforms to make sure that something like this never happens again. They need to make sure that they protect people, everyone on Capitol Hill to make sure that this doesn't happen.
And, you know, I think -- you know, to me, it's like if they get rid of the page program, they get rid of a great tradition on Capitol Hill, something that has given me so much and can't do it.
HALL: All right, Zack Hall.
PHILLIPS: I can see Zack Hall running for office very soon.
LEMON: I see it right there, and you have the Capitol right behind you.
PHILLIPS: Yes, he does.
LEMON: Zack Hall, very well-spoken young man, former page. Thank you so much for joining us today in the NEWSROOM.
HALL: Thank you. PHILLIPS: Well, confrontation at Gallaudet University. Campus police broke in to break up a protest by students who had barricaded themselves in one of the school's main buildings. These pictures were recorded on a cell phone. Protesters say that police used pepper spray and elbowed students, but a university spokesperson denies that.
She says the students have been asked to leave, and the next step will be to call the D.C. police. Now, Gallaudet is a school for deaf and hard of hearing students in Washington. And the protesters say there is a bias against students who use sign language instead of speech.
LEMON: John Mark Karr is a free man today, whereabouts, of course, unknown. Yesterday, Karr left a California courthouse after prosecutors dropped a years old child pornography change. Karr was mum toward the media, a stark change from August when he suggested to reporters, then in Thailand, that he killed JonBenet Ramsey.
That case collapsed for a lot of reasons, among them DNA. As for the child porn case, prosecutors conceded they could not prove Karr had viewed illegal images on a home computer they admit that they lost.
When your name is Supermax, you'd better be tough. Supermax prison is home to some of the hardest of the nation's hardened criminals, and it apparently isn't as tough as it should be. A Justice Department study finds prison authorities let convicts from the 1993 World Trade Center bombing communicate with outside radicals for years.
The terrorists sent dozens of letters in a bid to recruit suicide bombers. The prison has since hired Arabic translators to screen mail but staffing problems persist. Two weeks ago, a grand jury indicted an alleged L.A. gang leader directed drug dealing from Supermax by using coded messages.
PHILLIPS: "Closing Bell" and a wrap of the action on Wall Street straight ahead. Don't go away.
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LEMON: Time now to check in with CNN's Wolf Blitzer.
PHILLIPS: He is standing by in "THE SIT ROOM" to tell us what is coming up at the top of the hour. Hey, Wolf.
WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Hi, guys. Thanks very much.
A former page at the center of the Foley investigation. His lawyer is live here in "THE SITUATION ROOM." We'll find out what he says about his client's interactions with the former Congressman. Plus, he'll respond to an Internet rumor that the whole thing is a hoax.
Also, drowned out by scandal. President Bush has a very hard time trying to get his midterm message out. Plus, gay in the GOP. The political closet on Capitol Hill that's creating some serious tension in the Republican Party.
And the comeback governor. Around Schwarzenegger gets ready for his big debate. Will he cruise to victory or trip himself up? All that, guys, is coming up right here in "THE SITUATION ROOM."
LEMON: All right, Wolf. Thanks.
PHILLIPS: Well, the closing bell is about to ring on Wall Street. Cheryl Casone is standing by with a final look at the trading day, but first -- guess whose birthday it is? Don Lemon's mamma. That's right. She's what, 32 today?
LEMON: I can't believe you did this!
PHILLIPS: Cheryl, is she a cutie-pie or what?
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